Long Gone
by uknowyuuna13
Summary: Ever wonder WHY Jack raised the Pearl from the bottom of the Big Blue? What made him love that ship so much? Well, here's a one-shot that I just thought up.


**Author's Note: I have a few stories in the works right now, but I needed to write this one. Please don't be mad if it's a little OOC. I just needed something soft and sad for Capt. Jack Sparrow. Ever wonder why he loves that hat so much? Ever wonder why he made that deal with Davey Jones for the Pearl? I mean, she's just a ship…right?**

**I don't own PotC, or Capt. Jack. I don't own the song Talking in Code, either. It's Margot and the Nuclear So & So's. I just drew inspiration from it. **

Talking in Code

_**13 Years Ago**_

_I gotta go_

Jack stood on the bow of the Greene Diamond, his face flat, his fingers clenching around the letter he held in his grasp. Mr. Gibbs had looked at him with a question on his face, but Jack didn't see it. He just stared straight ahead, unseeing, and on the inside, unbelieving.

He could still see her smile, the way her strawberry blond hair glittered in the sunlight. Her eyes when she was mad with him, or happy, or aroused, the way they changed across the green color wheel. The way her skin flushed when he said just the right thing. His eyes closed for a moment before opening again, his heart breaking just a little more.

_And you're talking in code_

"Eh, Captain?" Gibbs asked, his tone gentle. "What be in that letter that makes you look so…well, lost, Jack?"

Jack simply took a deep breath and handed the letter over to his friend, turning away from him as he did so. "Don't…don't let anyone else see the contents of that letter, Master Gibbs."

"Aye, Captain." Gibbs began to read.

_My Dearest Jack,_

_ I don't have much time. I have been gone too long, I know, and I regret nothing more than this. I regret not telling you of my love for you. I regret not telling you of the plans I had made for us. I mostly regret not going with you to the Islands. I know we would have been happy. Just you, me and the Greene Diamond. My ship. _

_ Jack, I long to tell you this in person, but I fear I am on borrowed time. So I must make this letter quick and short. I had something made for us and I have lost it to the sea. I need you to retrieve it for me, Jack. Her name is the Black Pearl and she is all ours. Well, yours now anyway…_

_ Oh, Jack. My Jack. How I loved you. And because I can no longer give you myself, I give you the Pearl. Take care of her, my Jack. Retrieve her from the grasp of Davey Jones and his Dutchman. I put my heart and soul into her for you. So you shall always have me. Just keep an eye on the horizon…_

_ Yours Forever,_

_ Aylah_

_Saying I know where youve been_

Gibbs sighed heavily as he looked over the contents of the letter, knowing that Jack would follow the letters to the t. He loved Aylah. Had even thought of giving up pirating for her, but Aylah, being the angel she was, would have none of it. She had fallen in love with Jack the man, pirate or not. She wouldn't have him any way but happy.

"Eh, Jack?" Gibbs knocked on the door to his quarters.

"What do yeh want, Master Gibbs? I'm no' in th' mood for comp'ney." Jack slurred.

"Was just wondering….do we have our heading?" Gibbs asked through the door, the letter still in his hands.

The door swung open, revealing a very disheveled Jack Sparrow, a bottle of rum in one hand, his hat clamped firmly in his other hand. Gibbs almost felt badly for Jack, but he knew that his friend and Captain was the strong sort. He would pull through this.

"Take me to the Flying Dutchman, Gibbs." Jack slurred before passing out on the deck.

_and I know where you go but I've been tired_

The Dutchman was old, broken down…in terrible shape. But Jack had to admit, once he was sober enough to make any sense at all, that it was one hell of a ship. Gibbs and some of the crew watched nervously as Jack held up his hand, and drew the blade of his knife along its length.

"I summon thee, Davey Jones! I offer a trade!" Jack called, the rain pelting down from above, the lightning cracking all around him.

As soon as the words left his mouth, a hideous squid faced mutant of a man was on board the Diamond, and beside Jack.

"What's yer name, lad?" Jones asked, his voice deep and chilling.

"Jack Sparrow, as it were." Jack said sternly. "I wish to trade with you."

"Trade?" Jones laughed. "What could you possibly have that I want and visa versa?"

Jack looked Jones square in the eye as he replied, "You have the Black Pearl in your possession and I want it, nay, I need it, nay, I can't LIVE without it."

If Jones had eyebrows, one would have been quirked. "And in return? What do I get?"

_From the moment I woke and the moment you spoke and said…_

"My soul." Jack said, almost desperately.

"Ye'd be willin' to offer your SOUL for a ship?" Jones grinned, his eyes glittering dangerously.

"Aye." Jack stood his ground.

Jones seemed to think it over for a moment before he responded. "Alright. I shall raise up the Black Pearl from the depths and make ye Captain. BUT! In thirteen years time, you will come to work on my crew as a part of the Dutchman." Jones held out a claw. "Do we have an accord?"

Jack looked down at the sea, then up at Jones, taking his claw. "Aye, I believe we do."

_im long gone yeah..._

Jack stood on the stern of the Black Pearl, running his hands down the rails of polished wood, glistening in the sunlight. He sighed and looked down at his hat. The hat she had gotten him on their first trade voyage together. Putting it on his head, he sighed.

"I'll miss ye, love."

And as the wind blew through his hair and across his face, Captain Jack Sparrow could almost swear he had heard Aylah's voice, light as a chime and twice as lovely saying, "I'll miss you too, my Jack."

_im long gone_


End file.
